Eight Missouri ministers accused of intercourse abuse in Southern Baptist Conference report • Missouri Independent

The Southern Baptist Convention on Thursday launched a once-secret and prolonged list of accused sex abusers — several of whom are in the Midwest — within the denomination.

The 205-page list is a compilation of ministers and different church workers who've been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The list is described as a “fluid, working doc” that was also incomplete however largely pulls information about abusers from published information reports.

The publication of the record comes after the discharge Sunday of a 300-page report by an unbiased investigator that described how leaders of the Southern Baptist denomination for many years have acquired stories of sexual abuse committed by church staff, pastors and others. But these experiences were largely saved secret and, fairly than performing upon and investigating stories of sexual abuse, denomination leaders sought to intimidate and vilify victims and their advocates.

“The whole thing must be seen for what it is,” wrote former Southern Baptist Convention executive committee member and general counsel D. August Boto in an inside e-mail that was revealed in the report. “It’s a satanic scheme to utterly distract us from evangelism.”

The disaster rocking the Southern Baptist denomination this week is comparable in many ways to what the Catholic church continues to face. Leaders in each faiths systematically hid details about sexual misconduct, appeared to point out more concern about their own legal liability than the victims and at times did not expel accused abusers from positions of authority.

In 2007, Father Thomas Doyle, a Catholic priest credited as one of the first to warn of his personal denomination’s clergy intercourse abuse disaster, wrote a letter to SBC management conveying his concern that Southern Baptist leaders had been repeating the failures of the Catholic church in dealing with intercourse abuse.

Doyle was instructed, “Southern Baptist leaders actually haven't any authority over local church buildings,” a response that Doyle regarded as dismissive, according to the investigative report. 

That very same yr, at the SBC conference in San Antonio, Oklahoma pastor Wade Burleson made a motion to create a database of Southern Baptist clergy who had been convicted or credibly accused of, or had confessed to sexual abuse. The proposal was meant to “help in preventing any future sexual abuse or harassment.”

The database proposal appeared to go nowhere, in keeping with the report, and witnesses on the conference recalled little about it besides to precise their opinion that it could “violate local church autonomy.”

Finally, a staffer for the SBC government committee since 2007 had maintained an inventory of accused ministers and church workers, however it was saved hidden from the public and even SBC government committee trustees, in keeping with the report.

Southern Baptist leaders said publicizing the list of credibly accused abusers represented “an preliminary, however important, step in the direction of addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Conference.”

“Each entry in this record reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse,” said a joint assertion from Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, both SBC executive committee members. “Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts discover hope and healing, and that churches will utilize this record proactively to protect and look after probably the most weak amongst us.”

Lawyers for the SBC govt committee researched the checklist of accused abusers, taking steps to confirm data it contained. It left unredacted entries about alleged abusers that could possibly be confirmed, while redacting entries where somebody was acquitted or did not have a final disposition, as well as info that could establish victims.

Missouri males feature prominently on the record. They embody:

This story comes from the Midwest Newsroom, an investigative journalism collaboration including IPR, KCUR 89.3, Nebraska Public Media Information, St. Louis Public Radio and NPR. For extra in-depth information from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, we invite you to comply with us on Twitter.